


Mask of the Ashen Demon

by ReevaKnight



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions Route, I can't think of tags, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:47:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24323008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReevaKnight/pseuds/ReevaKnight
Summary: Byleth had never had to deal with emotions before the academy... or politics... or war. At first she never knew she wanted connections to others... now it hurt having them.Byleth didn't understand any of this, it was all so wrong. She just wanted the war to stop, she didn't want to step over the bodies of any more students she cared for.Surely if she could just reach the Emperor... Edelgard in the throne room she would finally get answers...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Mask of the Ashen Demon

**Author's Note:**

> This was a challenge to purposely write something short... but I JUST managed it. Wrote as another challenge. 
> 
> A look at Byleth just not having a whole understanding of the war and knowing more must be going on, as well as dealing with emotions she just never learned to have growing up. 
> 
> I hope it came out ok.

Hurried footsteps echoed over the dirty and bloody floor, the noise reverberating around the grand room, rubble was strewn across her path as she continued to run toward the far doors. Blood oozed across the floor, streaming from figures and bodies she dared not look at, didn’t want to commit to memory. This was no blank battleground against nameless faces, an enemy labeled as the ‘bad guys’, nothing but monsters acting on their own selfish impulses. This was different… it was all different. And wrong. 

How many had it been now? How many battles and how many of the faces she had known were simply… gone. This was no practise battle where she would see them tomorrow… smiling with a fresh bruise, a fresh pair of clothes, laughing and worried about their studies. This was too different, it was ugly. 

Byleth never thought of herself as sheltered from the battlefield, yet in this way... she was, the Ashen Demon had never had to kill those she once saw as allies and even… friends. This war wasn’t worth it. None of it was worth it. Byleth didn’t understand. Not any of it!

An earsplitting roar broke Byleth from her thoughts as she ran, sliding to a stop as her instincts kicked in, pushing away her thoughts. This was survival, it was all the Ashen Demon knew how to do, she settled into her old instincts like an old worn glove. Perfect. 

The stink of death was all around her, it infected her senses, it wrapped around her form, she just could not escape it. Screams and shouts broke through the air as it ripped at her psyche, threatening to pull at her mind, clawing at her fear and anger. It was too much… 

Byleth swallowed, she swallowed her fear and her thoughts, years ago it had all been so, so easy. As if there was hardly even a person beyond her body to have thoughts and emotions… now? Her emotions were so raw and almost overpowering, it was getting harder every single day to swallow it. But she had to. There was no choice. 

She stared at the monster before her, one of those disgusting crest beasts, the result of corruption from a crest stone. She didn’t understand why it happened, only that this was the result of those poor souls without a crest trying to use one. It was a disgusting, abhorrent result… her fear and anger spiking through the blanket of calm she forced onto her face. The mask of the Ashen Demon had never been so cracked… so broken. She didn’t know how long the mask would work anymore, not long ago around the students, she found herself wishing to actually rid herself of it. Being around others had warmed her heart and soul, she found that for the first time in her life… she actually cared… 

But caring hurt. 

The black disfigured creature lunged at her from across the room, over rubble, bearing down on her. Byleth grit her teeth and shifted her grip on her sword. This was just another faceless enemy, she could deal with this. The sword of the creator whipped out from her, the individual blades shot out like vengeful lightning as it slashed against the head of the monster. A high pitched screech followed the attack as it buckled and fell to the floor. Massive legs and arms twisting horrendously underneath. The great bulk crashed to the floor before her, rattling the walls of the hall Byleth was running through. Dust floated down from the ceiling as the ex-teacher pulled the blooded blade back to her, the decaying black fluid dripping from the sword. But the monster wasn’t done, it pushed its arms out to force itself to rise, it’s beastial eyes staring right at the professor. Spittle dripping from its maw as it attempted to strike at the Enlightened one again. 

Byleth found the usual blank nothing that covered her mind in a heavy fog was waning, the almost calming bubble of indifference and logic was falling away bit by bit, the Ashen Demon was dying. Soon there would be nothing left, she struggled to wrap herself in that mentality. She just didn’t understand, didn’t understand the whole story and it was infuriating! Byleth had never felt infuriated before, or even cared beyond what her company would be doing beyond the next job. She just didn’t exist in that world anymore. 

All she wanted to do was protect those she had felt a connection to. 

Byleth once more struck out, determined to end this thing and press on. The sword pierced through the air and straight into the face of the monster… cracking it’s bony plates to bits and right through the corrupted mound of flesh to erupt out the back of the head. Spraying blood and gore to the floor below. This time the creature did not make a sound, no horrible scream or snarl, nothing. Byleth tugged back the blade before the thing even landed. The mass of flesh quickly rotting and oozing black gunk across the marble floor. The stench burned her nose, the decay was something that would stay with her long after all of these vile things are gone. 

The sword of the creator whipped back to her side with a heavy clink, the warm glowing weapon at her side did little to calm her, ground her, it was just a symbol for the people to follow. Byleth felt like she didn’t have the whole story, but no one wanted or was able to tell her more of it. 

Byleth dismissed the body and ran, once more over the marble floor. Clashes and shouts rang out behind her, explosions rocked the walls, this truly was war. And Byleth hated it. 

Up ahead of her was her goal… the last doors between her and the one person who could end this. The one person she hoped right now could answer her questions… she needed to know what any of this even meant. There must have been reasons, good reasons, Byleth needed them. 

The haze of calm, of nothing that used to fill her head was punctured with all of her new emotions, it was painful, she wasn’t used to dealing with this. She stopped trying to guess why everything hurt, it just did, it had something to do with the fact that Sothis can’t talk to her anymore. Ever since that day she has felt more and more, little things here and there, odd and off-putting at first, but welcome. Now? She didn’t want it. She wanted to push it all back down and away. 

A couple of black robed mages stood in her way, their body language spoke of their panic as they attempted to stop her. But Byleth wasn’t in the mood anymore. They were keeping her from seeing Edelgard. 

The so called Enlightened one threw her blade toward them, the terrible edge of the whip-like weapon tore through clothes and flesh alike. She ignored their shouts of agony and pain as they fell in a crumpled heap, ignored the bodies as they now lay still, it didn’t matter, they didn’t matter. They were in the way, that was all. 

She jumped over the still forms of her enemies as she finally reached the grand elegant doors to the throne room. In the back of her mind she thought how she would have loved to have seen them before all of this, wished she could have visited, to see life as it bustled around the halls, to have seen the Emperor of Adrestia as Byleth had always seen her at the academy. Just Edelgard, the diligent class leader with hope for the future. Not the bringer of war. 

Byleth’s hand smashed into the great door and pushed, the heavy weight giving way to her determination. She had to see her, felt this need to see her, maybe she could get some answers, more than what the church had told her, more than the past ravings of Dimitri. There had to be more. There was more to it than just an ally of that cult who killed her father… there just had to be.

With a groan the ex-teacher forced her way through the very last barrier, she was alone, the rest of her army and ex-students were behind. Elsewhere in the palace or outside, too many fronts and the enemy appeared as if from nowhere, Byleth had told them to hold the line, she was going alone. 

It wasn’t as if she thought she was so capable of defeating Edelgard on her own, it was more the desperate urge to be alone with her once more, to simply… talk. Byleth knew that a mutual understanding might not be within reach but maybe… just maybe she could know just what was going on. 

If she could just talk to her as Byleth and not as some weapon of the church or of the holy kingdom. 

So many questions burned at her mind as she pushed the door open wide, a great grand room opened up before her, a place of ruling, a place of politics, of discussions, of war. The throne room of the Emperor of Fodlan was all of these things, but it also reminded her of her… friend. 

Once upon a time she had thought of every single one of the students as her friends, she felt a warmth to see them smile at her and ask her questions. Even the ones not in her class. Every single time one of them fell, she felt like she was breaking. No matter what side they were on. Her new emotions plagued her but it was her soul that was shattered, the pieces lost with each body she had to step across, each face she recognised. 

Finally, she could speak to Edelgard. Once… just a student. She didn’t know what to do but she needed to ask her so many questions. 

However... what greeted her was not the Emperor… at first Byleth focused on the form before her. Was this another crest beast? Wait… 

The… thing… that stared down at her from the throne was no beast. It carried itself like no animal, no monster. This was far more than that. Byleth’s eyes grew wide in pure shock, the haze like mask that covered her senses broke, falling from her face, the Ashen Demon died in that exact moment. Her soul cracked as if to break completely. 

Byleth’s hold on her sword slacked, she stood there frozen, transfixed. 

She could see it now, this was… Edelgard. She wanted to scream, to cry out at her… why?! Why did you do this?! Why did you do any of this?! She didn’t understand! Was this just a sick joke?!

The student she had so badly wanted to see… was gone. In her place was a monster that brought bile to her throat, her energy was lost, the strength that kept Byleth on her feet and moving forward vanished from her limbs. The desperation and need for answers that had kept her going leaked out of her. 

She could only stare at that face now, the face who looked so much like the student she once knew, yet was so different and… wrong. 

A scream echoed out into the throne room…

* * *

A figure lurched up out of the bed. Dripping with sweat and panting, gasping for air, wet streaks on her cheeks… 

Byleth grabbed at the sheets and flung them off her, she gripped at the pain in her unbeating chest. The nightmare so fresh it felt like she had truly been there once more. But then… it wasn’t just a nightmare… it was a memory. 

Tears leaked down her face now as the pain from the memory gripped her like a vice, her own broken soul still fed her these emotions she no longer wanted. No longer needed. She didn’t want them anymore, what was the point? When all they caused was pain... 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Here is my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/ReevaKnight)


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